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New Complexity is acomposition school in20th-century classical music where composers seek a "complex, multi-layered interplay ofevolutionary processes occurring simultaneously within everydimension of the musical material".[1]
Though oftenatonal, highly abstract, anddissonant in sound, New Complexity music is most readily characterized by the use of techniques which require complexmusical notation. This includesextended techniques, complex and often unstabletextures,microtonality, highly disjunctmelodic contour, complex layered rhythms, abrupt changes in texture, and so on. It is also characterized, in contrast to the music of the immediate post–World War IIserialists, by the frequent reliance of its composers on poetic conceptions, very often implied in the titles of individual works and work-cycles.
The origin of the nameNew Complexity is uncertain; amongst the candidates suggested for having coined it are the composerNigel Osborne, the Belgian musicologistHarry Halbreich, and the British-Australian musicologistRichard Toop, who gave currency to the concept of a movement with his article "Four Facets of the New Complexity";[2] Toop's article emphasizes the individuality of four composers (Richard Barrett, Chris Dench,James Dillon, andMichael Finnissy), both in terms of their working methods and the sound of their compositions, and demonstrates that they did not constitute a unified "school of thought".[3]
In the UK, particularly at the instigation of ensembles Suoraan and later Ensemble Exposé, works by "New Complexity" composers were for some time frequently programmed together with then unfashionable non-UK composers includingXenakis andFeldman, but also such diverse figures asClarence Barlow,Hans-Joachim Hespos, andHeinz Holliger.
Although the British influence, via the teaching efforts ofBrian Ferneyhough and Michael Finnissy, was decisive in the origins of this movement, initial support came not from British institutions but rather from performers and promoters of new music in continental Europe, particularly at theDarmstädter Ferienkurse where Ferneyhough coordinated the composition courses from 1984 to 1992.[4]
Ferneyhough'sEtudes Transcendantales, asong cycle for soprano and chamber ensemble, demonstrates many traits found in New Complexity music. In addition to being generally difficult to learn and perform, the pitch vocabulary makes heavy use of microtones—in this case,equal-temperedquarter tones. It also contains manytuplets of unusual ratios which are nested in multiple layers. Rapid changes, sometimes from note to note, happen in dynamics, articulation, and playing technique, including techniques such asmultiphonics on the oboe, glottal stops for the voice, and key-clicking for the flute. According to Richard Toop, the rhythm for the oboe part in the first song is almost totally determined by a strict system with five stages of complexity, each governed by its own cycle of numbers.
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By 1997, the composers associated with the New Complexity had become an international and geographically disjunctive movement, spread across North America, Europe, and Australia, many of them with little connection to the Darmstadt courses, and with considerable divergence amongst themselves in styles and techniques.[1] This can be seen in the range of nationalities of composers interested in this aesthetic direction, the international interest of ensembles in this music, and the impact of teachers such as James Dillon,Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, and Brian Ferneyhough in both Germany and the United States.
One example of the international spread of the movement can be found in theBludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik during the leadership of the composerWolfram Schurig from 1995 to 2006. Although numerous other compositional directions were represented as well, this festival was prominent during this decade for its support of composers associated with the New Complexity, in many respects replacing the Darmstadter Ferienkurse in leadership in this compositional direction. The international nature of its programming is clear from a large number of composers invited from North America; these included Ignacio Baca-Lobera from Mexico and Aaron Cassidy, Franklin Cox, Chris Mercer, Steven Takasugi, and Mark Osborn from the United States.
There are various individual performers who have become to varying degrees closely associated with the movement, among them flautists Nancy Ruffer and Lisa Cella, oboists Christopher Redgate and Peter Veale, clarinettistsCarl Rosman, Andrew Sparling and Michael Norsworthy, pianists Augustus Arnone,James Clapperton,Nicolas Hodges, Mark Knoop, Marilyn Nonken,Mark Gasser, Ermis Theodorakis, andIan Pace, violinists Mieko Kanno and Mark Menzies, cellistsFranklin Cox,Arne Deforce [Wikidata] and Friedrich Gauwerky. A number of ensembles are also known for performing New Complexity works, such as theArditti Quartet,JACK Quartet, Ensemble Exposé,Thallein Ensemble, Ensemble 21, Ensemble SurPlus, andELISION Ensemble. Works by Ferneyhough and Dillon, in particular, have been taken on by a wider range of European ensembles, includingensemble recherche, Ensemble Accroche-Note, the Nieuw Ensemble, and Ensemble Contrechamps.
Sources
A collection of articles on most of the British members of the movement can be found in the issue "Aspects of Complexity in Recent British Music", edited Tom Morgan,Contemporary Music Review 13, no. 1 (1995). The journalPerspectives of New Music also published a two-part "Complexity Forum", edited by James Boros, in volumes 31, no. 1 (Winter 1993): 6–85, and 32, no.1 (Winter 1994): 90–227 which included some contributions by and about composers associated with the New Complexity.
